Attribution of recent climate change
Encyclopedia
Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain
mechanisms responsible for recent changes observed in the Earth
's climate
. The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record
, when records are most reliable; particularly on the last 50 years, when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere
have become available. The dominant mechanisms (to which recent climate change has been attributed) are the result of human activity. They are:
There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillation
s, changes in solar activity, variations in the Earth's orbit
, and volcanic
activity.
Attribution of recent change to anthropogenic forcing is based on the following facts:
Recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) have concluded that:
The panel defines "very likely," "extremely likely," and "virtually certain" as indicating probabilities greater than 90%, 95%, and 99%, respectively.
The IPCC's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by most scientists,
and is also supported by a number of scientific organizations (see scientific opinion on climate change
).
science that are used in the following sections:
Factors affecting Earth
's climate can be broken down into feedbacks and forcings.
A forcing is something that is imposed externally on the climate system. External forcings include natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions and variations in the sun's output.
Human activities can also impose forcings, for example, through changing the composition of the atmosphere.
Radiative forcing
is a measure of how various factors alter the energy balance
of the Earth's atmosphere.
A positive radiative forcing will tend to increase the energy of the Earth-atmosphere system, leading to a warming of the system. Between the start of the Industrial Revolution
in 1750, and the year 2005, the increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (chemical formula
: CO2) lead to a positive radiative forcing, averaged over the Earth's surface area
, of about 1.66 watt
s per square metre (abbreviated W m-2).
Climate feedbacks can either amplify or dampen the response of the climate to a given forcing.
There are many feedback mechanisms in the climate system that can either amplify (a positive feedback
) or diminish (a negative feedback
) the effects of a change in climate forcing.
Aspects of the climate system will show variation in response to changes in forcings.
In the absence of forcings imposed on it, the climate system will still show internal variability. This internal variability is a result of complex interactions between components of the climate system, such as the coupling
between the atmosphere and ocean
.
An example of internal variability is the El Niño-Southern Oscillation
.
Scientific consensus has identified carbon dioxide
as the dominant greenhouse gas
forcing. (The dominant greenhouse gas overall is water vapor
. Water vapor, however, has a very short atmospheric lifetime (about 10 days) and is very nearly in a dynamic equilibrium in the atmosphere, so it is not a forcing
gas in the context of global warming.) Methane
and nitrous oxide
are also major forcing contributors to the greenhouse effect
. The Kyoto Protocol
lists these together with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), which are entirely artificial (i.e. anthropogenic) gases which also contribute to radiative forcing in the atmosphere.
The chart at right attributes anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to eight main economic sectors, of which the largest contributors are power stations (many of which burn coal
or other fossil fuel
s), industrial
processes (among which cement
production is a dominant contributor), transportation fuel
s (generally fossil fuel
s), and agricultural
by-products (mainly methane from enteric fermentation
and nitrous oxide from fertilizer
use).
for two main reasons.
While 66% of anthropogenic
emissions over the last 250 years have resulted from burning fossil fuels, 33% have resulted from changes in land use, primarily deforestation
. Deforestation both reduces the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by deforested regions and releases greenhouse gases directly, together with aerosols, through biomass burning
that frequently accompanies it.
A second reason that climate change has been attributed to land use is that the terrestrial albedo
is often altered by use, which leads to radiative forcing
. This effect is more significant locally than globally.
More than 18% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to livestock and livestock-related activities such as deforestation and increasingly fuel-intensive farming practices. Specific attributions to the livestock sector include:
s, which are small particles or droplets suspended in the atmosphere.
Key sources to which anthropogenic aerosols are attributed include:
Over the past 150 years human activities have released increasing quantities of greenhouse gas
es into the atmosphere
. This has led to increases in mean global temperature, or global warming
. Other human effects are relevant—for example, sulphate aerosols are believed to have a cooling effect. Natural factors also contribute. According to the historical temperature record of the last century, the Earth's near-surface air temperature has risen around 0.74 ±
0.18 °Celsius (1.3 ± 0.32 °Fahrenheit).
A historically important question in climate change research has regarded the relative importance of human activity and non-anthropogenic causes during the period of instrumental record
. In the 1995 Second Assessment Report (SAR), the IPCC
made the widely quoted statement that "The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate". The phrase "balance of evidence" suggested the (English) common-law standard of proof required in civil as opposed to criminal courts: not as high as "beyond reasonable doubt". In 2001 the Third Assessment Report (TAR) refined this, saying "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities". The 2007 Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) strengthened this finding:
Over the past five decades there has been a global warming of approximately 0.65 °C (1.17 °F) at the Earth's surface (see historical temperature record). Among the possible factors that could produce changes in global mean temperature are internal variability of the climate system, external forcing, an increase in concentration of greenhouse gases, or any combination of these. Current studies indicate that the increase in greenhouse gases, most notably , is mostly responsible for the observed warming. Evidence for this conclusion includes:
Detection and attribution of climate signals, as well as its common-sense meaning, has a more precise definition within the climate change literature, as expressed by the IPCC.
Detection of a signal requires demonstrating that an observed change is statistically significantly different from that which can be explained by natural internal variability.
Attribution requires demonstrating that a signal is:
Detection does not imply attribution, and is easier to show than attribution. Unequivocal attribution would require controlled experiments with multiple copies of the climate system, which is not possible. Therefore, attribution, as described above, can only be done within some margin of error. For example, the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report
says "it is extremely likely that human activities have exerted a substantial net warming influence on climate since 1750," where "extremely likely" indicates a probability greater than 95%.
Following the publication of the Third Assessment Report (TAR) in 2001, "detection and attribution" of climate change has remained an active area of research. Some important results include:
,
and each assessment has considered the role of human activities on the climate.
The IPCC's First Assessment Report
, published in 1990, was unable to distinguish a human influence on the climate. The later Second Assessment Report
, published in 1996, concluded that human influences had had a "discernable" effect on the climate. More evidence of human-induced climate change was found in the third
and fourth Assessment Reports
, published in 2001 and 2007, respectively.
The IPCC's conclusions are consistent with those of several reports produced by the US National Research Council.
A report published in 2009 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program
concluded that "[global] warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced."
A number of scientific organizations have issued statements that support the consensus view. Two examples include:
A small minority of scientists do disagree with the consensus: see list of scientists opposing global warming consensus. For example Willie Soon
and Richard Lindzen
say that there is insufficient proof for anthropogenic attribution. Generally this position requires new physical mechanisms to explain the observed warming.
). However, attribution was found to be more difficult when assessing changes over smaller regions (less than continental scale) and over short time periods (less than 50 years).
Over larger regions, averaging reduces natural variability of the climate, making detection and attribution easier.
has been precisely measured by satellite
s.
These measurements indicate that the Sun's output has not increased since 1978, so the warming during the past 30 years cannot be attributed to an increase in solar energy reaching the Earth (see the graph opposite). In the three decades since 1978, the combination of solar and volcanic activity probably had a slight cooling influence on the climate.
Climate models have been used to examine the role of the sun in recent climate change.
Models are unable to reproduce the rapid warming observed in recent decades when they only take into account variations in solar output and volcanic activity. Models are, however, able to simulate the observed 20th century changes in temperature when they include all of the most important external forcings, including human influences and natural forcings. As has already been stated, Hegerl et al. (2007) concluded that greenhouse gas forcing had "very likely" caused most of the observed global warming since the mid-20th century. In making this conclusion, Hegerl et al. (2007) allowed for the possibility that climate models had been underestimated the effect of solar forcing.
The role of solar activity in climate change has also been calculated over longer time periods
using "proxy" datasets, such as tree rings.
Models indicate that solar and volcanic forcings can explain periods of relative warmth and cold between A.D.
1000 and 1900, but human-induced forcings are needed to reproduce the late-20th century warming.
Another line of evidence against the sun having caused recent climate change comes from looking at how temperatures at different levels in the Earth's atmosphere have changed.
Models and observations show that greenhouse warming results in warming of the lower atmosphere (called the troposphere
) but cooling of the upper atmosphere (called the stratosphere
). Depletion
of the ozone layer
by chemical refrigerant
s has also resulted in a strong cooling effect in the stratosphere. If the sun was responsible for observed warming, warming of both the troposphere and stratosphere would be expected.
in Russia
, has argued that the sun is responsible for recently observed climate change.
Journalist
s for news
sources canada.com (Solomon, 2007b),
National Geographic News (Ravillious, 2007),
and LiveScience
(Than, 2007)
reported on the story of warming on Mars
. In these articles, Abdussamatov was quoted. He stated that warming on Mars was evidence that global warming on Earth was being caused by changes in the sun.
Ravillious (2007)
quoted two scientists who disagreed with Abdussamatov: Amato Evan, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the US
, and Colin Wilson, a planetary physicist
at Oxford University in the UK
. According to Wilson, "Wobbles in the orbit of Mars are the main cause of its climate change in the current era" (see also orbital forcing
).
Than (2007) quoted Charles Long, a climate physicist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories
in the US, who disagreed with Abdussamatov.
Than (2007) pointed to the view of Benny Peiser
, a social anthropologist at Liverpool John Moores University
in the UK.
In his newsletter
, Peiser had cited a blog
which had commented on warming observed on several planetary bodies in the Solar system
. These included Neptune
's moon Triton
, Jupiter
, Pluto
and Mars. In an e-mail interview with Than (2007), Peiser stated that:
The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA, 2009) responded to public comments on climate change attribution..
A number of commenters had argued that recent climate change could be attributed to changes in solar irradiance. According to the US EPA (2009), this attribution was not supported by the bulk of the scientific literature
. Citing the work of the IPCC (2007), the US EPA pointed to the low contribution of solar irradiance to radiative forcing since the start of the Industrial Revolution in 1750. Over this time period (1750 to 2005),
the estimated contribution of solar irradiance to radiative forcing was 5% the value of the combined radiative forcing due to increases in the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
). The ice core record shows that on some occasions temperature starts rising hundreds of years before increases. Such results confirm that the relationship between and climate can go in both directions: changes in concentrations affect climate, while changes in climate can affect concentrations. One proposed mechanism for this effect is increased release of sequestered from oceans as circulation patterns shift, perhaps abruptly, in response to climate change.
A more speculative and polemical inference sometimes drawn is that the causal relationship between temperature rises and global concentrations is only one-way, so that historical increases in have been nothing more than the product of independently rising temperatures. However, a strictly "one-way" view of the relationship between and temperature contradicts basic results in physics, specifically the fact that the absorption and emission of infrared radiation by increases as its atmospheric concentration increases.
First principles as well as empirical observation suggest that positive feedbacks from concentrations amplify warming initially caused by other factors:
Present levels greatly exceed the range found in the ice core data. Isotopic analysis of atmospheric
confirms that fossil fuel burning is the source of most of the increase, unlike during prior interglacial periods. As noted above, models that include increased levels when simulating recent climate match the observed data far better than those that do not.
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
mechanisms responsible for recent changes observed in the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
's climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
. The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record
Instrumental temperature record
The instrumental temperature record shows fluctuations of the temperature of the global land surface and oceans. This data is collected from several thousand meteorological stations, Antarctic research stations and satellite observations of sea-surface temperature. Currently, the longest-running...
, when records are most reliable; particularly on the last 50 years, when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere
Troposphere
The troposphere is the lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere. It contains approximately 80% of the atmosphere's mass and 99% of its water vapor and aerosols....
have become available. The dominant mechanisms (to which recent climate change has been attributed) are the result of human activity. They are:
- increasing atmosphericAtmosphereAn atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, and that is held in place by the gravity of the body. An atmosphere may be retained for a longer duration, if the gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low...
concentrations of greenhouse gasGreenhouse gasA greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
es - global changes to land surface, such as deforestationDeforestationDeforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
- increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosolAerosolTechnically, an aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas. Examples are clouds, and air pollution such as smog and smoke. In general conversation, aerosol usually refers to an aerosol spray can or the output of such a can...
s.
There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillation
Climate oscillation
A climate oscillation is any oscillation within global or regional climate. These fluctuations in atmospheric temperature, sea surface temperature, precipitation or other parameters can be quasi-periodic, often occurring on inter-annual, multi-annual, decadal, multidecadal, century-wide, millennial...
s, changes in solar activity, variations in the Earth's orbit
Earth's orbit
In astronomy, the Earth's orbit is the motion of the Earth around the Sun, at an average distance of about 150 million kilometers, every 365.256363 mean solar days .A solar day is on average 24 hours; it takes 365.256363 of these to orbit the sun once in the sense of returning...
, and volcanic
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
activity.
Attribution of recent change to anthropogenic forcing is based on the following facts:
- The observed change is not consistent with natural variability.
- Known natural forcings would, if anything, be negative over this period.
- Known anthropogenic forcings are consistent with the observed response.
- The pattern of the observed change is consistent with the anthropogenic forcing.
Recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body which provides comprehensive assessments of current scientific, technical and socio-economic information worldwide about the risk of climate change caused by human activity, its potential environmental and...
(IPCC) have concluded that:
- "Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gasGreenhouse gasA greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
concentrations"; It is extremely unlikely (<5%) that the global pattern of warming during the past half century can be explained without external forcing (i.e., it is inconsistent with being the result of internal variability), and very unlikely that it is due to known natural external causes alone. The warming occurred in both the ocean and the atmosphere and took place at a time when natural external forcing factors would likely have produced cooling. - "From new estimates of the combined anthropogenic forcingRadiative forcingIn climate science, radiative forcing is generally defined as the change in net irradiance between different layers of the atmosphere. Typically, radiative forcing is quantified at the tropopause in units of watts per square meter. A positive forcing tends to warm the system, while a negative...
due to greenhouse gases, aerosolAerosolTechnically, an aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas. Examples are clouds, and air pollution such as smog and smoke. In general conversation, aerosol usually refers to an aerosol spray can or the output of such a can...
s, and land surface changesLand useLand use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
, it is extremely likely that human activities have exerted a substantial net warming influence on climate since 1750." - "It is virtually certain that anthropogenic aerosols produce a net negative radiative forcingRadiative forcingIn climate science, radiative forcing is generally defined as the change in net irradiance between different layers of the atmosphere. Typically, radiative forcing is quantified at the tropopause in units of watts per square meter. A positive forcing tends to warm the system, while a negative...
(cooling influence) with a greater magnitude in the Northern HemisphereNorthern HemisphereThe Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
than in the Southern HemisphereSouthern HemisphereThe Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
.
The panel defines "very likely," "extremely likely," and "virtually certain" as indicating probabilities greater than 90%, 95%, and 99%, respectively.
The IPCC's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by most scientists,
and is also supported by a number of scientific organizations (see scientific opinion on climate change
Scientific opinion on climate change
The predominant scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth is in an ongoing phase of global warming primarily caused by an enhanced greenhouse effect due to the anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases...
).
Background
This section introduces some concepts in climateClimate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
science that are used in the following sections:
Factors affecting Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
's climate can be broken down into feedbacks and forcings.
A forcing is something that is imposed externally on the climate system. External forcings include natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions and variations in the sun's output.
Human activities can also impose forcings, for example, through changing the composition of the atmosphere.
Radiative forcing
Radiative forcing
In climate science, radiative forcing is generally defined as the change in net irradiance between different layers of the atmosphere. Typically, radiative forcing is quantified at the tropopause in units of watts per square meter. A positive forcing tends to warm the system, while a negative...
is a measure of how various factors alter the energy balance
First law of thermodynamics
The first law of thermodynamics is an expression of the principle of conservation of work.The law states that energy can be transformed, i.e. changed from one form to another, but cannot be created nor destroyed...
of the Earth's atmosphere.
A positive radiative forcing will tend to increase the energy of the Earth-atmosphere system, leading to a warming of the system. Between the start of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
in 1750, and the year 2005, the increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (chemical formula
Chemical formula
A chemical formula or molecular formula is a way of expressing information about the atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound....
: CO2) lead to a positive radiative forcing, averaged over the Earth's surface area
Surface area
Surface area is the measure of how much exposed area a solid object has, expressed in square units. Mathematical description of the surface area is considerably more involved than the definition of arc length of a curve. For polyhedra the surface area is the sum of the areas of its faces...
, of about 1.66 watt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
s per square metre (abbreviated W m-2).
Climate feedbacks can either amplify or dampen the response of the climate to a given forcing.
There are many feedback mechanisms in the climate system that can either amplify (a positive feedback
Positive feedback
Positive feedback is a process in which the effects of a small disturbance on a system include an increase in the magnitude of the perturbation. That is, A produces more of B which in turn produces more of A. In contrast, a system that responds to a perturbation in a way that reduces its effect is...
) or diminish (a negative feedback
Negative feedback
Negative feedback occurs when the output of a system acts to oppose changes to the input of the system, with the result that the changes are attenuated. If the overall feedback of the system is negative, then the system will tend to be stable.- Overview :...
) the effects of a change in climate forcing.
Aspects of the climate system will show variation in response to changes in forcings.
In the absence of forcings imposed on it, the climate system will still show internal variability. This internal variability is a result of complex interactions between components of the climate system, such as the coupling
Coupling (physics)
In physics, two systems are coupled if they are interacting with each other. Of special interest is the coupling of two vibratory systems by means of springs or magnetic fields, etc...
between the atmosphere and ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
.
An example of internal variability is the El Niño-Southern Oscillation
El Niño-Southern Oscillation
El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, is a quasiperiodic climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean roughly every five years...
.
Greenhouse gases
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
as the dominant greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
forcing. (The dominant greenhouse gas overall is water vapor
Water vapor
Water vapor or water vapour , also aqueous vapor, is the gas phase of water. It is one state of water within the hydrosphere. Water vapor can be produced from the evaporation or boiling of liquid water or from the sublimation of ice. Under typical atmospheric conditions, water vapor is continuously...
. Water vapor, however, has a very short atmospheric lifetime (about 10 days) and is very nearly in a dynamic equilibrium in the atmosphere, so it is not a forcing
Radiative forcing
In climate science, radiative forcing is generally defined as the change in net irradiance between different layers of the atmosphere. Typically, radiative forcing is quantified at the tropopause in units of watts per square meter. A positive forcing tends to warm the system, while a negative...
gas in the context of global warming.) Methane
Methane
Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...
and nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or sweet air, is a chemical compound with the formula . It is an oxide of nitrogen. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a slightly sweet odor and taste. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic...
are also major forcing contributors to the greenhouse effect
Greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere...
. The Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
lists these together with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), which are entirely artificial (i.e. anthropogenic) gases which also contribute to radiative forcing in the atmosphere.
The chart at right attributes anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to eight main economic sectors, of which the largest contributors are power stations (many of which burn coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
or other fossil fuel
Fossil fuel
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...
s), industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
processes (among which cement
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
production is a dominant contributor), transportation fuel
Fuel
Fuel is any material that stores energy that can later be extracted to perform mechanical work in a controlled manner. Most fuels used by humans undergo combustion, a redox reaction in which a combustible substance releases energy after it ignites and reacts with the oxygen in the air...
s (generally fossil fuel
Fossil fuel
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...
s), and agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
by-products (mainly methane from enteric fermentation
Enteric fermentation
Enteric fermentation is a digestive process by which carbohydrates are broken down by microorganisms into simple molecules for absorption into the bloodstream of an animal.It is one of the factors in increased methane emissions....
and nitrous oxide from fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
use).
Land use
Climate change is attributed to land useLand use
Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
for two main reasons.
While 66% of anthropogenic
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
emissions over the last 250 years have resulted from burning fossil fuels, 33% have resulted from changes in land use, primarily deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
. Deforestation both reduces the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by deforested regions and releases greenhouse gases directly, together with aerosols, through biomass burning
Slash and burn
Slash-and-burn is an agricultural technique which involves cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields. It is subsistence agriculture that typically uses little technology or other tools. It is typically part of shifting cultivation agriculture, and of transhumance livestock...
that frequently accompanies it.
A second reason that climate change has been attributed to land use is that the terrestrial albedo
Albedo
Albedo , or reflection coefficient, is the diffuse reflectivity or reflecting power of a surface. It is defined as the ratio of reflected radiation from the surface to incident radiation upon it...
is often altered by use, which leads to radiative forcing
Radiative forcing
In climate science, radiative forcing is generally defined as the change in net irradiance between different layers of the atmosphere. Typically, radiative forcing is quantified at the tropopause in units of watts per square meter. A positive forcing tends to warm the system, while a negative...
. This effect is more significant locally than globally.
Livestock and land use
Worldwide, livestock production occupies 70% of all land used for agriculture, or 30% of the ice-free land surface of the Earth.More than 18% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to livestock and livestock-related activities such as deforestation and increasingly fuel-intensive farming practices. Specific attributions to the livestock sector include:
- 9% of global anthropogenic carbon dioxideCarbon dioxideCarbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
emissions - 35–40% of global anthropogenic methaneMethaneMethane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...
emissions (chiefly due to enteric fermentationEnteric fermentationEnteric fermentation is a digestive process by which carbohydrates are broken down by microorganisms into simple molecules for absorption into the bloodstream of an animal.It is one of the factors in increased methane emissions....
and manureManureManure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil...
) - 64% of global anthropogenic nitrous oxideNitrous oxideNitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or sweet air, is a chemical compound with the formula . It is an oxide of nitrogen. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a slightly sweet odor and taste. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic...
emissions, chiefly due to fertilizerFertilizerFertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
use.
Aerosols
With virtual certainty, scientific consensus has attributed various forms of climate change, chiefly cooling effects, to aerosolAerosol
Technically, an aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas. Examples are clouds, and air pollution such as smog and smoke. In general conversation, aerosol usually refers to an aerosol spray can or the output of such a can...
s, which are small particles or droplets suspended in the atmosphere.
Key sources to which anthropogenic aerosols are attributed include:
- biomass burning such as slash and burnSlash and burnSlash-and-burn is an agricultural technique which involves cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields. It is subsistence agriculture that typically uses little technology or other tools. It is typically part of shifting cultivation agriculture, and of transhumance livestock...
deforestation. Aerosols produced are primarily black carbonBlack carbonIn Climatology, black carbon or BC is a climate forcing agent formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuel, and biomass, and is emitted in both anthropogenic and naturally occurring soot. It consists of pure carbon in several linked forms...
. - industrial air pollutionAir pollutionAir pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....
, which produces sootSootSoot is a general term that refers to impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolyzed fuel particles such as cenospheres,...
and airborne sulfateSulfateIn inorganic chemistry, a sulfate is a salt of sulfuric acid.-Chemical properties:...
s, nitrateNitrateThe nitrate ion is a polyatomic ion with the molecular formula NO and a molecular mass of 62.0049 g/mol. It is the conjugate base of nitric acid, consisting of one central nitrogen atom surrounded by three identically-bonded oxygen atoms in a trigonal planar arrangement. The nitrate ion carries a...
s, and ammoniumAmmoniumThe ammonium cation is a positively charged polyatomic cation with the chemical formula NH. It is formed by the protonation of ammonia... - dust produced by land useLand useLand use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
effects such as desertificationDesertificationDesertification is the degradation of land in drylands. Caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities, desertification is one of the most significant global environmental problems.-Definitions:...
Attribution of 20th century climate change
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
es into the atmosphere
Earth's atmosphere
The atmosphere of Earth is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night...
. This has led to increases in mean global temperature, or global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
. Other human effects are relevant—for example, sulphate aerosols are believed to have a cooling effect. Natural factors also contribute. According to the historical temperature record of the last century, the Earth's near-surface air temperature has risen around 0.74 ±
Plus-minus sign
The plus-minus sign is a mathematical symbol commonly used either*to indicate the precision of an approximation, or*to indicate a value that can be of either sign....
0.18 °Celsius (1.3 ± 0.32 °Fahrenheit).
A historically important question in climate change research has regarded the relative importance of human activity and non-anthropogenic causes during the period of instrumental record
Instrumental temperature record
The instrumental temperature record shows fluctuations of the temperature of the global land surface and oceans. This data is collected from several thousand meteorological stations, Antarctic research stations and satellite observations of sea-surface temperature. Currently, the longest-running...
. In the 1995 Second Assessment Report (SAR), the IPCC
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body which provides comprehensive assessments of current scientific, technical and socio-economic information worldwide about the risk of climate change caused by human activity, its potential environmental and...
made the widely quoted statement that "The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate". The phrase "balance of evidence" suggested the (English) common-law standard of proof required in civil as opposed to criminal courts: not as high as "beyond reasonable doubt". In 2001 the Third Assessment Report (TAR) refined this, saying "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities". The 2007 Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) strengthened this finding:
- "Anthropogenic warming of the climate system is widespread and can be detected in temperature observations taken at the surface, in the free atmosphere and in the oceans. Evidence of the effect of external influences, both anthropogenic and natural, on the climate system has continued to accumulate since the TAR.")
Over the past five decades there has been a global warming of approximately 0.65 °C (1.17 °F) at the Earth's surface (see historical temperature record). Among the possible factors that could produce changes in global mean temperature are internal variability of the climate system, external forcing, an increase in concentration of greenhouse gases, or any combination of these. Current studies indicate that the increase in greenhouse gases, most notably , is mostly responsible for the observed warming. Evidence for this conclusion includes:
- Estimates of internal variability from climate models, and reconstructions of past temperatures, indicate that the warming is unlikely to be entirely natural.
- Climate models forced by natural factors and increased greenhouse gases and aerosols reproduce the observed global temperature changes; those forced by natural factors alone do not.
- "Fingerprint" methods indicate that the pattern of change is closer to that expected from greenhouse gas-forced change than from natural change.
- The plateau in warming from the 1940s to 1960s can be attributed largely to sulphate aerosol cooling.
Detection vs. attribution
Detection of a signal requires demonstrating that an observed change is statistically significantly different from that which can be explained by natural internal variability.
Attribution requires demonstrating that a signal is:
- unlikely to be due entirely to internal variability;
- consistent with the estimated responses to the given combination of anthropogenic and natural forcing
- not consistent with alternative, physically plausible explanations of recent climate change that exclude important elements of the given combination of forcings.
Detection does not imply attribution, and is easier to show than attribution. Unequivocal attribution would require controlled experiments with multiple copies of the climate system, which is not possible. Therefore, attribution, as described above, can only be done within some margin of error. For example, the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report
IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
Climate Change 2007, the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change, its potential effects, and options for...
says "it is extremely likely that human activities have exerted a substantial net warming influence on climate since 1750," where "extremely likely" indicates a probability greater than 95%.
Following the publication of the Third Assessment Report (TAR) in 2001, "detection and attribution" of climate change has remained an active area of research. Some important results include:
- A review of detection and attribution studies by the International Ad HocAd hocAd hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
Detection and Attribution Group found that "natural drivers such as solar variability and volcanic activity are at most partially responsible for the large-scale temperature changes observed over the past century, and that a large fraction of the warming over the last 50 yr can be attributed to greenhouse gas increases. Thus, the recent research supports and strengthens the IPCC Third Assessment Report conclusion that 'most of the global warming over the past 50 years is likely due to the increase in greenhouse gases.'" - Multiple independent reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 yearsTemperature record of the past 1000 yearsThe temperature record of the 2nd millennium describes the reconstruction of temperatures since 1000 CE on the Northern Hemisphere, later extended back to 1 CE and also to cover the southern hemisphere. A reconstruction is needed because a reliable surface temperature record exists only since about...
confirm that the late 20th century is probably the warmest period in that time - Two papers in the journal ScienceScience (journal)Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
in August 2005 resolve the problem, evident at the time of the TAR, of troposphericTroposphereThe troposphere is the lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere. It contains approximately 80% of the atmosphere's mass and 99% of its water vapor and aerosols....
temperature trends. The UAH version of the record contained errors, and there is evidence of spurious cooling trends in the radiosonde record, particularly in the tropics. See satellite temperature measurementsSatellite temperature measurementsThe temperature of the atmosphere at various altitudes as well as sea and land surface temperatures can be inferred from satellite measurements. Weather satellites do not measure temperature directly but measure radiances in various wavelength bands...
for details; and the 2006 US CCSP report. - Barnett and colleagues say that the observed warming of the oceans "cannot be explained by natural internal climate variability or solar and volcanic forcing, but is well simulated by two anthropogenically forced climate models," concluding that "it is of human origin, a conclusion robust to observational sampling and model differences"
Scientific literature and opinion
There are a number of examples of published and informal support for the consensus view. The IPCC's Assessment Reports have informed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14, 1992...
,
and each assessment has considered the role of human activities on the climate.
The IPCC's First Assessment Report
IPCC First Assessment Report
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change first assessment report was completed in 1990, and served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ....
, published in 1990, was unable to distinguish a human influence on the climate. The later Second Assessment Report
IPCC Second Assessment Report
The Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , published in 1996, is an assessment of the then available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change...
, published in 1996, concluded that human influences had had a "discernable" effect on the climate. More evidence of human-induced climate change was found in the third
IPCC Third Assessment Report
The IPCC Third Assessment Report, Climate Change 2001, is an assessment of available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change by the IPCC. The IPCC was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme and the UN's World Meteorological Organization ".....
and fourth Assessment Reports
IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
Climate Change 2007, the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change, its potential effects, and options for...
, published in 2001 and 2007, respectively.
The IPCC's conclusions are consistent with those of several reports produced by the US National Research Council.
A report published in 2009 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program
U.S. Global Change Research Program
The United States Global Change Research Program or USGCRP coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. The program began as a presidential initiative in 1989 and was codified by Congress through the Global Change Research Act...
concluded that "[global] warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced."
A number of scientific organizations have issued statements that support the consensus view. Two examples include:
- a joint statement made in 2005 by the national science academies of the G8G8The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...
, and BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
; - a joint statement made in 2008 by the Network of African Science AcademiesNetwork of African Science AcademiesThe Network of African Science Academies was formed in December 2001 as an independent forum, for African science academies to discuss scientific issues of common concern.Member academies are:* African Academy of Sciences* Cameroon Academy of Sciences...
.
Individual papers
- An essay in ScienceScience (journal)Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
surveyed 928 abstractsAbstract (summary)An abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review, conference proceeding or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject or discipline, and is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper's purpose. When used, an abstract always appears at the beginning of a...
related to climate change, and concluded that most journal reports accepted the consensusScientific opinion on climate changeThe predominant scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth is in an ongoing phase of global warming primarily caused by an enhanced greenhouse effect due to the anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases...
. This is discussed further in scientific opinion on climate change. - A 2002 paper in the Journal of Geophysical ResearchJournal of Geophysical ResearchThe Journal of Geophysical Research is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Geophysical Union 80 times per year. It contains original research on the physical, chemical, and biological processes that contribute to the understanding of the Earth, Sun, and solar system...
says "Our analysis suggests that the early twentieth century warming can best be explained by a combination of warming due to increases in greenhouse gases and natural forcing, some cooling due to other anthropogenic forcings, and a substantial, but not implausible, contribution from internal variability. In the second half of the century we find that the warming is largely caused by changes in greenhouse gases, with changes in sulphates and, perhaps, volcanic aerosol offsetting approximately one third of the warming." - In 1996, in a paper in NatureNature (journal)Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
titled "A search for human influences on the thermal structure of the atmosphere", Benjamin D. SanterBenjamin D. SanterDr. Benjamin D. Santer is a climate researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and former researcher at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit...
et al. wrote: "The observed spatial patterns of temperature change in the free atmosphere from 1963 to 1987 are similar to those predicted by state-of-the-art climate models incorporating various combinations of changes in carbon dioxide, anthropogenic sulphate aerosol and stratospheric ozone concentrations. The degree of pattern similarity between models and observations increases through this period. It is likely that this trend is partially due to human activities, although many uncertainties remain, particularly relating to estimates of natural variability."
A small minority of scientists do disagree with the consensus: see list of scientists opposing global warming consensus. For example Willie Soon
Willie Soon
Willie Wei-Hock Soon is an astrophysicist at the Solar and Stellar Physics Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Soon has testified before Congress on the issue of climate change He is known for his views that most global warming is caused by solar variation...
and Richard Lindzen
Richard Lindzen
Richard Siegmund Lindzen is an American atmospheric physicist and Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lindzen is known for his work in the dynamics of the middle atmosphere, atmospheric tides and ozone photochemistry. He has published more than...
say that there is insufficient proof for anthropogenic attribution. Generally this position requires new physical mechanisms to explain the observed warming.
Difficulties in attribution
At the time of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, attribution was possible for a number of observed changes in the climate (see effects of global warmingEffects of global warming
This article is about the effects of global warming and climate change. The effects, or impacts, of climate change may be physical, ecological, social or economic. Evidence of observed climate change includes the instrumental temperature record, rising sea levels, and decreased snow cover in the...
). However, attribution was found to be more difficult when assessing changes over smaller regions (less than continental scale) and over short time periods (less than 50 years).
Over larger regions, averaging reduces natural variability of the climate, making detection and attribution easier.
Solar activity
The role of the sun in recent climate change has been looked at by climate scientists. Since 1978, output from the SunSolar variation
Solar variation is the change in the amount of radiation emitted by the Sun and in its spectral distribution over years to millennia. These variations have periodic components, the main one being the approximately 11-year solar cycle . The changes also have aperiodic fluctuations...
has been precisely measured by satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
s.
These measurements indicate that the Sun's output has not increased since 1978, so the warming during the past 30 years cannot be attributed to an increase in solar energy reaching the Earth (see the graph opposite). In the three decades since 1978, the combination of solar and volcanic activity probably had a slight cooling influence on the climate.
Climate models have been used to examine the role of the sun in recent climate change.
Models are unable to reproduce the rapid warming observed in recent decades when they only take into account variations in solar output and volcanic activity. Models are, however, able to simulate the observed 20th century changes in temperature when they include all of the most important external forcings, including human influences and natural forcings. As has already been stated, Hegerl et al. (2007) concluded that greenhouse gas forcing had "very likely" caused most of the observed global warming since the mid-20th century. In making this conclusion, Hegerl et al. (2007) allowed for the possibility that climate models had been underestimated the effect of solar forcing.
The role of solar activity in climate change has also been calculated over longer time periods
Paleoclimatology
Paleoclimatology is the study of changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth. It uses a variety of proxy methods from the Earth and life sciences to obtain data previously preserved within rocks, sediments, ice sheets, tree rings, corals, shells and microfossils; it then...
using "proxy" datasets, such as tree rings.
Models indicate that solar and volcanic forcings can explain periods of relative warmth and cold between A.D.
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
1000 and 1900, but human-induced forcings are needed to reproduce the late-20th century warming.
Another line of evidence against the sun having caused recent climate change comes from looking at how temperatures at different levels in the Earth's atmosphere have changed.
Models and observations show that greenhouse warming results in warming of the lower atmosphere (called the troposphere
Troposphere
The troposphere is the lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere. It contains approximately 80% of the atmosphere's mass and 99% of its water vapor and aerosols....
) but cooling of the upper atmosphere (called the stratosphere
Stratosphere
The stratosphere is the second major layer of Earth's atmosphere, just above the troposphere, and below the mesosphere. It is stratified in temperature, with warmer layers higher up and cooler layers farther down. This is in contrast to the troposphere near the Earth's surface, which is cooler...
). Depletion
Ozone depletion
Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s: a steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth's stratosphere , and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon...
of the ozone layer
Ozone layer
The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations of ozone . This layer absorbs 97–99% of the Sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to the life forms on Earth...
by chemical refrigerant
Refrigerant
A refrigerant is a substance used in a heat cycle usually including, for enhanced efficiency, a reversible phase change from a liquid to a gas. Traditionally, fluorocarbons, especially chlorofluorocarbons, were used as refrigerants, but they are being phased out because of their ozone depletion...
s has also resulted in a strong cooling effect in the stratosphere. If the sun was responsible for observed warming, warming of both the troposphere and stratosphere would be expected.
Non-consensus views
Habibullo Abdussamatov (2004), head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical ObservatoryPulkovo Observatory
The Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory астрономи́ческая обсервато́рия Росси́йской акаде́мии нау́к), the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, located 19 km south of Saint Petersburg on Pulkovo Heights...
in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, has argued that the sun is responsible for recently observed climate change.
Journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
s for news
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
sources canada.com (Solomon, 2007b),
National Geographic News (Ravillious, 2007),
and LiveScience
LiveScience
LiveScience is a science news website run by TechMediaNetwork, who purchased it from Imaginova in 2009. Stories and editorial commentary are commonly syndicated to major news outlets, such as Yahoo!, MSNBC, AOL, and Fox News....
(Than, 2007)
reported on the story of warming on Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. In these articles, Abdussamatov was quoted. He stated that warming on Mars was evidence that global warming on Earth was being caused by changes in the sun.
Ravillious (2007)
quoted two scientists who disagreed with Abdussamatov: Amato Evan, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and Colin Wilson, a planetary physicist
Planetary science
Planetary science is the scientific study of planets , moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation,...
at Oxford University in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. According to Wilson, "Wobbles in the orbit of Mars are the main cause of its climate change in the current era" (see also orbital forcing
Orbital forcing
Orbital forcing is the effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth's axis and shape of the orbit . These orbital changes change the total amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by up to 25% at mid-latitudes...
).
Than (2007) quoted Charles Long, a climate physicist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is one of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, managed by the Department of Energy's Office of Science. The main campus of the laboratory is in Richland, Washington....
in the US, who disagreed with Abdussamatov.
Than (2007) pointed to the view of Benny Peiser
Benny Peiser
Benny Josef Peiser, born 1957, is a social anthropologist specializing in the environmental and socio-economic impact of physical activity on health...
, a social anthropologist at Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
in the UK.
In his newsletter
Newsletter
A newsletter is a regularly distributed publication generally about one main topic that is of interest to its subscribers. Newspapers and leaflets are types of newsletters. Additionally, newsletters delivered electronically via email have gained rapid acceptance for the same reasons email in...
, Peiser had cited a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
which had commented on warming observed on several planetary bodies in the Solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
. These included Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
's moon Triton
Triton (moon)
Triton is the largest moon of the planet Neptune, discovered on October 10, 1846, by English astronomer William Lassell. It is the only large moon in the Solar System with a retrograde orbit, which is an orbit in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation. At 2,700 km in diameter, it is...
, Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
and Mars. In an e-mail interview with Than (2007), Peiser stated that:
“I think it is an intriguing coincidence that warming trends have been observed on a number of very diverse planetary bodies in our solar system, (...) Perhaps this is just a fluke.”Than (2007) provided alternative explanations of why warming had occurred on Triton, Pluto, Jupiter and Mars.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA, 2009) responded to public comments on climate change attribution..
A number of commenters had argued that recent climate change could be attributed to changes in solar irradiance. According to the US EPA (2009), this attribution was not supported by the bulk of the scientific literature
Scientific literature
Scientific literature comprises scientific publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences, and within a scientific field is often abbreviated as the literature. Academic publishing is the process of placing the results of one's research into the...
. Citing the work of the IPCC (2007), the US EPA pointed to the low contribution of solar irradiance to radiative forcing since the start of the Industrial Revolution in 1750. Over this time period (1750 to 2005),
the estimated contribution of solar irradiance to radiative forcing was 5% the value of the combined radiative forcing due to increases in the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
Earlier climate changes
Factors other than increased concentrations can initiate warming or cooling episodes (see, e.g., orbital forcingOrbital forcing
Orbital forcing is the effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth's axis and shape of the orbit . These orbital changes change the total amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by up to 25% at mid-latitudes...
). The ice core record shows that on some occasions temperature starts rising hundreds of years before increases. Such results confirm that the relationship between and climate can go in both directions: changes in concentrations affect climate, while changes in climate can affect concentrations. One proposed mechanism for this effect is increased release of sequestered from oceans as circulation patterns shift, perhaps abruptly, in response to climate change.
A more speculative and polemical inference sometimes drawn is that the causal relationship between temperature rises and global concentrations is only one-way, so that historical increases in have been nothing more than the product of independently rising temperatures. However, a strictly "one-way" view of the relationship between and temperature contradicts basic results in physics, specifically the fact that the absorption and emission of infrared radiation by increases as its atmospheric concentration increases.
First principles as well as empirical observation suggest that positive feedbacks from concentrations amplify warming initially caused by other factors:
Close analysis of the relationship between the two curves [i.e., temperature and ] shows that, within the uncertainties of matching their timescales, the temperature led by a few centuries. This is expected, since it was changes in the Earth’s orbital parameters (including the shape of its orbit around the Sun, and the tilt of Earth’s axis) that caused the small initial temperature rise. This then raised atmospheric levels, in part by outgassing from the oceans, causing the temperature to rise further. By amplifying each other’s response, this "positive feedback" can turn a small initial perturbation into a large climate change. There is therefore no surprise that the temperature and rose in parallel, with the temperature initially in advance. In the current case, the situation is different, because human actions are raising the level, and we are starting to observe the temperature response.
Present levels greatly exceed the range found in the ice core data. Isotopic analysis of atmospheric
Suess effect
The Suess effect is change in the ratio of the atmospheric concentrations of heavy isotopes of carbon by the admixture of large amounts of fossil-fuel derived CO2, which is depleted in 13CO2 and contains no 14CO2. It is named for the Austrian chemist Hans Suess, who noted the influence of this...
confirms that fossil fuel burning is the source of most of the increase, unlike during prior interglacial periods. As noted above, models that include increased levels when simulating recent climate match the observed data far better than those that do not.
Further reading
- RealClimate – Le Quéré, How much of the recent increase is due to human activities?, 2005
External links
- RealClimate – Blog on current climate change issues by active climatologists
- "The Climate of Man", The New Yorker (2005): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
- Anthropogenic or Solar? by Shaviv
- Recent oppositely directed trends in solar climate forcings and the global mean surface air temperature by Mike Lockwood and Claus Frohlich
- US EPA climate change and global warming website
- ResearchChannel – How Do We Know? Physics, Forcings, and Fingerprints. A video by the National Science FoundationNational Science FoundationThe National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
on climate change. - Scientific American editors' blog – Extended discussion of climate attribution